Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE World Championshi~_erb_ik_eS_eri_es:_Ro_UD_d_6 ~ A Ducatifreight train of Raymond Roche (2), Doug Polen (1), and Stephane Mertens (4) lead the way in Austria. F alappa gets his first in Austria By Gary Pinchin Photos by J ohan Vanderckerhove ZELTWEG, AUSTRIA, JUNE 28 alappal The hard man of superbike racing is back - at least on the high-speed swervery of the Oesterreichring. Still not fully recovered from his horrendous accident at the same track two years ago, Giancarlo Falappa, the king of the late brakers, edged out his rivals to win both races on the Team Police Ducati. But after two incredible closely fought races in front of an estimated 23,000 fans, Australian Rob Phillis had extended his points lead over Doug Polen to 11 points, 178-167, and set a new lap record duririg the height of the second race battle. Phillis was delighted with his second and fourth place finishes after two daring rides on the factory Team Moving Kawasaki ZXR750. Some of his aggressive passes won the hearts of the spectators, even the many Italian Falappa fans in the stands. Polen had to be content with third and fifth places on the day and he could easily have won the first leg, but got badly held up by Raymond Roche, who had a motor failure in the Bosch Curve. Roche is still third .in the point standings with 145 points, but lost more ground on the leading duo after his first race DNF. In the second leg, Roche used his spare engine and was not happy with its performance, even though he led for several laps. Falappa's two wins elevated him to fourth in the standings with 141 points, at the expense of Aaron Slight, who dropped to sixth after a broken clutch dropped him to seventh in the first race. He was a non-finisher in the second when his motor let go. And Slight will miss the next race while testing, factory bikes in Japan in readiness for the Suzuka Eight-Hour. Fabrizio .Pirovano has also moved up a place to fifth after fourth and sixth .place finishes in Austria. He blew two motors in qualifying and used a tired; high-mileage motor for the races and was able to run in the leading pack both times, but never quite got on the pace of the leaders. Simon Crafar, a 23-year-old New Zealander, had two outstanding rides on Rich Arnaiz's spare Rumi Honda F 18 which has an '88/89 spec motor. Tenth and 11 th places may not sound like much but in the cauldron of superbike racing, on a machine that is'Considered well past its 'sell by date,' his racing iIIl:pressed everyone. Qualifying It was only one fast lap of the 3.628- mile race track, but it was enough to secure the pole position for Roche. With 10 minutes left of the final qualifying session, the Frenchman cut a one-minute, 51.590-second lap on a soft-compound 1864 (not a qualifier) Michelin after struggling on Saturday morning to break the 53-second barrier. It was the first pole position of the season for Michelin in WorId Championship Superbike racing. "Pole position is not important to me, but Michelin asked me to see hQw fast I could go on the tire and I did what they asked," Roche said. "It is good because this is a race tire. But I know tomorrow pole position will mean nothing. It will be a big fight." Polen and Stephane Mertens, both on trick Dunlop qualifying tires, were the only other riders to get into the 51-second range. Polen secured second fastest time in the final session with a 1:51.655 while Mertens cut his best lap in the very first timed session on Friday. Polen had a drama free practice, apart from running out of gas in turn f0tlr during the Saturday morning session. Luckily, there was just enough fuel to get him back to the pits. It could have been a long walk, and a wasted session otherwise. The Texan was his usual confident self about the race but admitted it would probably come down to a multibike slipstreaming battle. "The top of . the hill just before the Bosch Curve is the place this race will be decided," he said. "If you get the draft right there you can gain yards, man. That's where I passed oy Roche last year. But it's real easy to make a mistake there and then you are in big trouble. The Bosch Curve ain't no place to crash I" Mertens was trying one of the CTS Tellert electronic gear shifters on his Total Wanty Ducati for the first time in the final session (but declined to race with until it he could have a tailor. made linkage). He also nearly ran off the course trying to keep pace with the flying Roche on the pole winning lap. . Mertens has been hot at Zeltweg for three years. "In 1988, when I raced Bimota, I crashed in practice and dislocated my knee so I decided not to race," recalled Mertens. "That lost me the championship. But since then the circuit has paid me back. I have finished top overall in classification each year (1989 3-1, 19902-1 and 1991 1-2). It is a very fast track and suits me very much." Falappa, also on Dunlops, completed the usual Ducati assault on the front row with a 1:52.037. Team Moving Kawasaki's Phillis prevented an all-V-twin front row, posting a 1:52.301 which was fifth fastest overall but placed him third on the grid, with times taken alternatively from the respective two qualifying groups. This weekend, Phillis had the new cylinder heads mated to his engine with, the new lightweight crank he used in Spain. "It feels good," he said. "In the last session we tried something with the suspension and screwed up a bit but overall, I'm happy." Sixth fastest was Davide Tardozzi, despite crashing in the Hella Licht chicane during Saturday's first practice. He almost took out Yamaha rider Jeffry de Vries in the tumble, the Dutchman just managing to avoid the errant Grottini Ducati. A week earlier it was Tardozzi who sideswiped Merkel at Jarama. Slight was seventh fastest, even though his number one motor let go on Saturday morning. He only got the last 18 minutes of the session on his number two bike. Slight, though, was reveling in the fast open sweepers. "It's so fast, but it's a bit dangerous. Like, you don't want to crash at this place." Slight said. "But it's really weird. I struggled at Jarama to get the bike right but here it's perfect and yet the track is so different to anything I'm used to riding on." Slight was right on the pace from the first untimed session, but could have done with one more lap in the final 50 minutes to break the 52s. "We did 53.9s with one bike which felt great but once I got going faster, the front end problems started," Slight said. "So I had to go out on my number one bike with a replacement, brand new engine. I had to run it in first and did a two minute dead with new . tires on. Next lap I got a big slide so _ I gave them a little more time to heat up. Third lap I did a 53.2 on my first flier. It was a bit cruel on the motor but one more lap and I would have been in the 52s. Max (mechanic Adrian Gorst) clocked me on a split, well inside 52s, but the bloody flag came out when I was going ballistic," added Slight, that final reference coming from the movie Top Gun which he had been watching on video all afternoon between qualifying sessions in Phillis' motorhomel Fellow Kiwi Crafar was the sensation of qualifying putting his Rumi Honda on the second row with a 1:52.961. That was over a second faster than regular team member Baldassarre Monti, and almost two seconds faster than Arnaiz managed. And Crafar was on his spare and didn't look anywhere near as ragged as either of theml Arnaiz qualified further back with a 1:55.221. He was fast through the tight chicane, but struggled in the other corners. "I can't get it turned," he said. "I keep running wide and the front end is chopping around. I think maybe the suspension is set too harsh and I don't get enough feedback." German Kawasaki rider Ernst Gschwender also got his best grid placing of the year, his 1:53.005 achieved with some parts supplied by the factory Team Moving Kawasaki team and a good tow from Slight. "He was my wing man out there," joked Slight, continuing his Tom Cruise speak! The BYRD Yamaha team had a fraught practice in the Pirovano corner. He had some front-end patter during the first day of qualifying but more serious, he wrecked two engines and struggled to get on the pace. He w.as 10th fastest and would start from row three with a 1:53.152. The Fred Merkel camp was a lot happier one - especially when comparing the previous weekend at Jarama. Merkel was a mere 0.006-ofa-second slower than his teammate even though he had spent much of qualifying in agony, having to ride without his regular pain-killing shot or the massage on the ankle between stints on the bike. His doctor had not arrived going into Saturday afternoon. "Sure it hurts," said Merkel. "But it's a damn sight easier on the ankle here than at Jarama. And the bike's working a lot better on this type of track. " One of the CTS/Tellert gear shifters on Carl Fogarty's Ducati, and a tow from Phillis, meant a second difference in the British rider's lap time in the final session. Fogarty posted a·1:53.205 having previously not been below 54s.. "The bike's so slow," said Fogarty, still . with no factory engipe. "I'm revving it off the clock (the rev counter is marked up to 11,000) but can't stay in the slipstream. I'm riding my nuts off in the corners and at this rate, I'm going to dump it." Local rider Karl Truschees kept the large crowd for Saturday's practice happy. He was 13th fastest with his National importer Kawasaki, then came Spaniard Daniel Amatriain who had spent all Friday trying to dial in his Ducati's electronic fuel injection. Then on Saturday he struggled to get a.quick time. "There were so few bikes out there, I never got a tow," he said. Race one It was hectic into the Hella Licht chicane the first time after the drag uphill from the start line. Falappa and Pirovano arrived side by side with Falappa forcing ahead, and Polen in third jumping on the brakes expecting both of, them to make contact as they tipped in.

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